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in the mid 70's the mere slapping of a former larger sized car's model label on a smaller model was tacky and too easy to see through?

examples being "the small Fury" (putting the Fury nameplate on the former Satellite for 75), putting the Monaco nameplate on the former Coronet for 76, the Skylark on the former Appollo for 76, the LTD II on a "new body" that wasn't much lighter than the former Torino for 77, and wasn't there a Chevy Concours wagon in 72 that ended up on the Nova 4-5 years later?

or did it matter? or was this Detroit panic as to how on earth to make a "smaller more economical car?!"

How about when the GTO went from being on the A body Le Mans platform to the X body Ventura which was also just a knock off of the Nova?

Or when the Road Runner name went from being on the Satellite model to the Volare?

It was a time of downsizing in the mid to late 1970's due to the gas crisis. Automakers decided to make some of the cars smaller and lighter to save on fuel. Also if you will notice, that was when they stopped using big engines in most models.

The names may have had some resonance with the car-buying public at the time; like in the late 80s when most Oldsmobiles had the name "Cutlass" before the model name...Cutlass Supreme (the real Cutlass), Cutlass Ciera, Cutlass Calais, late 90s Cutlass (stopgap between Ciera and Alero).

As the Mustang started out a sporty skin on a Falcon economy car, then got bigger engines along the way, it was growing, and growing ever more powerful. In the late '60s, at the height of the musclecar era, insurance companies were starting to make it impossible to insure factory musclecars. And by '70, the EPA was introducing new regulations that were going to strangle the fastest engines. Lee Iacoca's original vision for the Mustang was a sporty car based off an economy car. Lighter was better, and the Mustang was grwoing away from that. So in 1970, while the Boss 429 cars were rolling out of dealer showrooms and BEFORE the big '71-73 Mustangs were even on the market, For decided to combat both the upcoming EPA regs and teh insurance angle by bringing the Mustang back to what it's original mission was, and started work on modifying the then-new Pinto platform (since the Falcon had grown to be the base level Torino and was even larger than the current Mustangs) to create a new, smaller car, more in line with the ''64 Mustang.

As luck would have it, it got released just in time for the first oil crisis. But that oil crisis wasnt' the reason for creating it. And like the first Mustang 10 years prior, the economy version was produced first, then the V8 performace version arrived a little later. And while the 302 V8 was strangled in stock form, it was still a 302 V8 and VERY easy to make faster. And the engine compartments fit the 351 Windsor AND 351 Cleveland, so making a real performance monter was easy. Add to that some of the best suspension Mustangs had ever had (and very poular for swaps in hot rods) and you could make a very fun car for cheap.

So to counter your pictures, here's a few that the owners have been having fun with, as well as a photoshop I did of a custom convertible with a bunch of subtle styling changes that many wont' even spot right off:

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